Most of black America is in housing projects, without jobs, living on welfare. And this is not the case in 'The Cosby… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
When I first started writing plays I couldn't write good dialogue because I didn't respect how black people talked. I thought that… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
Scripts were rather scarce in 1968. We did a lot of Amiri Baraka's plays, the agitprop stuff he was writing. It was… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
There's no idea in the world that is not contained by black life. I could write forever about the black experience in… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
What comes forth from you as an artist cannot be controlled. But you have responsibilities as a global citizen. Your history dictates… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
I'm a black American playwright. I couldn't be anything else. I make my art out of black American culture; they're all cut… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
I write for myself and my goal is bringing that world and that experience of black Americans to life on the stage… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
We were land-based agrarian people from Africa. We were uprooted from Africa, and we spent 200 years developing our culture as black… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
I'm trying to take culture and put it onstage, demonstrate it is capable of sustaining you. There is no idea that can't… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
I think that's the core of black aesthetics: the ability to improvise. That is what has enabled our [black people's] survival. — August Wilson Copy Share Image
In 1977, I wrote a series of poems about a character, Black Bart, a former cattle rustler-turned-alchemist. A good friend, Claude Purdy,… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
As long as the colored man look to white folks to put the crown on what he say . . . as… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
There's no reason why you can't say "August Wilson, playwright" even though all of my work, every single play, is about black… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
I think all in all, one thing a lot of plays seem to be saying is that we need to, as black… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
Blacks have traditionally had to operate in a situation where whites have set themselves up as the custodians of the black experience. — August Wilson Copy Share Image
. . . what happened, of course, was that I was writing a play set in the 1940's that was supposed to… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
I write the black experience in America, and contained within that experience, because it is a human experience, are all the universalities. — August Wilson Copy Share Image
My greatest influence has been the blues. And that's a literary influence, because I think the blues is the best literature that… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
I think the play offers (white Americans) a different way to look at black Americans For instance, in 'Fences' they see a… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
Most of black America is in housing projects, without jobs, living on welfare. And this is not the case in 'The Cosby Show,' because… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
I just write stuff down and pile it up, and when I get enough stuff, I spread it out and look at it and… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
I don't look at our society today too much. My focus is still in the past, and part of the reason is because what… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
The director works as an interpretive artist, but he's still an artist, so you also have to give him room to create and to… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
I dropped out of school, but I didn't drop out of life. I would leave the house each morning and go to the main… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
When I first started writing plays I couldn't write good dialogue because I didn't respect how black people talked. I thought that in order… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
“Like you? I go out of here every morning...bust my butt...cause I like you? It's my job. It's my responsibility!... Not cause I like… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
“-How long you been with the rail road now? -Twenty-seven years. Now, I'll tell you something about the railroad. What I done learned after… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
Scripts were rather scarce in 1968. We did a lot of Amiri Baraka's plays, the agitprop stuff he was writing. It was at a… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
I ain't never found no place for me to fit. Seem like all I do is start over. It ain't nothing to find no… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
I don't write for a particular audience. I work as an artist, and I think the audience of one, which is the self, and… — August Wilson Copy Share Image
